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Exodus 17

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1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, by their journeys, according to the commandment of Jehovah, and encamped in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.

2 Wherefore the people strove with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why strive ye with me? Wherefore do ye tempt Jehovah?

3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore hast thou brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

4 And Moses cried unto Jehovah, saying, What shall I do unto this people? They are almost ready to stone me.

5 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Pass on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and they rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thy hand, and go.

6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

7 And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the striving of the children of Israel, and because they tempted Jehovah, saying, Is Jehovah among us, or not?

8 Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

9 And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to-morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.

10 So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

11 And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

12 But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

13 And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

14 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

15 And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi;

16 And he said, Jehovah hath sworn: Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

   

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As with many common verbs, the meaning of “to say” in the Bible is highly dependent on context. Who is speaking? Who is hearing? What is it about? Is it a command, a message, an apology, instruction? All these things enter into the meaning of “say.” In general, though, “saying” has to do with sharing truth at various levels -- from the most exalted power people can have to perceive the Lord's desires directly to the most basic of orders issued to people at their lowest.

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Arcana Coelestia # 8625

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8625. 'And he said, Because [Amalek's] hand is against the throne of Jah' means because they wish to do violence to the Lord's spiritual kingdom. This is clear from the meaning of 'hand against someone' as doing violence; and from the meaning of 'the throne of Jah' as the Lord's spiritual kingdom. The reason why 'the throne of Jah' means the Lord's spiritual kingdom is that 'the throne' has reference to the Lord's kingship, and the Lord's spiritual kingdom corresponds to His kingship. There are two offices attributed to the Lord, which are those of priest and king. The celestial kingdom corresponds to His priesthood, and the spiritual kingdom to His kingship; for the Lord is called priest by virtue of His Divine Goodness, and He is called king by virtue of His Divine Truth. The name Christ holds the latter - Divine Truth - within it, and the name Jesus holds Divine Good, see 1728, 2015, 3004, 3009, 6148. 'The throne' has reference to the Lord's kingship, and therefore to His spiritual kingdom; and the same applies to 'Jah'. For what 'the throne' is, see 5313; and for what 'Jah' is, 8267.

As regards the specific thing meant here, that those represented by 'Amalek' - namely hellish genii steeped in falsity arising from interior evil - wish to do violence to the Lord's spiritual kingdom, this has been explained above in 8593, 8622. Those who were steeped in the falsity of this evil could not be kept away from those belonging to the spiritual Church, before the Lord came into the world and made Divine the Human within Him. When He did so they were shut up in hell, from where they cannot ever rise up; and also contact with that Church, effected through influx, was completely taken away. For in respect of the truth of faith a member of the spiritual Church is in obscurity; and he accepts it as the truth because the Church has said it is, not because he perceives it to be the truth. This truth as it resides with them becomes good and consequently composes their conscience. If wicked genii were to flow into that obscurity they would in a thousand ways destroy such conscience; for they go to work not on the truths of faith there but on the actual affections. Wherever they detect any degree of affection for good they instantly pervert it; they do this so secretively that it cannot at all be noticed. They attack the person's fundamental ends in view. In short, their wickedness defies description, though it may be compared to a deadly and imperceptible poison that penetrates right into the marrow of the bones. In the Lord's Divine mercy more will be said from experience about these genii at the ends of chapters. 1

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1. This proposal was not fulfilled, but presumably the material mentioned here concerning the hells appeared in the work published a few years later, in 1758, whose English title is Heaven and Hell.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.